Well, today Rolex went in to get his yearly blood, pee, poo, ....tests, X-rays, cardiogram,.... and teeth cleaned. He has had a heart murmur since I got him as a 12 week old pup, back then they told me he has about 6 months to a year to live. Well, 6 years later, and now its starting to get bad. He now has a 5/6 murmur, his heart is HUGE. I guess his valves don't close all the way, so the right side of his heart is getting back-flow of blood, and its stretching it out. Now the left side is getting bigger too. When you look at his X-ray, his heart takes up 70% of his cavity. So I have to make an appointment with a Cardiologist at the Animal Services. I am not a fan of theirs, just because they have $4000 of my money already, and now they are about to get more . LOL Yes I have about $7000 now in this dog in just Vet bills! I love him . SOOOOO... to add to that, now he has the beginning stages of kidney failure. His pee gravity test came back 10/10 I guess normal is 10/30. There were other tests(creatine, RNN?) where the levels were high, I just don't remember the name of them right now. So if anybody has any experience or info on how to deal with ether of these issues, please let me know, because I honestly don't know where i am going to pull this $ out of this time. I am still paying off one of the 3 maxed out cards from his past health issues. I guess time for another one? Please keep us in your thoughts, I think we might be needing it.

I certainly hope they didn't do anesthesia and work they had planned to do on him!

Good thoughts for you and Rolex.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

I'm sorry to hear about the murmur...Xander has one too, and it's steadily getting worse...but so far he's not symptomatic (cross fingers, knock wood). He's got a torn ACL, and we decided against surgery because of the cost (he had to go to a specialist and be monitored, etc) and because of the murmur. He's doing well on the leg though.

So no advice on the murmur...but lots of positive, healing, good thoughts headed your way...

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

Thank you so much for the good thoughts! I talked to the Vet today about diet, vitamins and such just to ease the strain on the organs.She wants to put him on a special Kidney food, + some meds.... but she wants to see what the Cardiologist says, if he thinks he needs to go on a cardiac diet more urgently then we will do that. Its hard, because I have a feeling that we will be able to help his kidneys or his heart but not both. So I don't know, I just feel helpless. His Cardiologist appointment I am making tomorrow, so it should be next week or the week after that. So we will see. Again, thank you for the good thoughts!

Run Hard at the Rainbow Bridge My Angel Sock-M! I Love You Baby Girl! Now that your Mom Starlit is up there too, please help her learn the ropes, love and keep her company until I can see you both again. Starlit I love you!http://i14.tinypic.com/2a8q345.jpg

Was the concentration of the urine (1.010) the very first morning urine? That tends to be the best concentration value for checking kidney function. Also, a good indication as to how the kidneys are functioning is by checking the protein/creatinine ratio.

I have patients that have both cardiac and renal disease, and it isn't easy to deal with sometimes. To treat one, you could make the other worse. I think having the cardiologist evaluate the function is a great place to start.

Yes, the teeth are important, but wait to find out what the status of the heart function is before trying anything. It's also important to monitor what you do with respect to the kidneys too, because sometime the bones, etc have high protein levels and that isn't good for the kidneys.

I am so sorry. I hope it isn't as bad as it initially looks, and we are sending good thoughts your way!